It's my daily driver: 1991 GMC Sierra C3500 "The Prime Mover"

It's not pretty, but it's honest.

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The Driver:

Alex Kierstein, age 32

Ann Arbor, MI

The Vehicle:

1991 GMC Sierra C3500 "The Prime Mover"

White spray paint with blue vinyl interior

5.7-liter V8

I bought this thing for a song from a self-described "entrepreneur" in a sketchy part of town. The bill of sale was written on a piece of cardboard torn
off of a cigarette carton. A stack of hundreds moved him significantly down on price.

There was tacky paint badly applied to parts of the truck when I showed up. "Did you just spray paint this thing before I got here?" I asked him. With a
completely straight face, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, he replied "yup."

The only reason I bought it was that it was cheaper than renting a Uhaul, and I needed to tow a car to Michigan. That I sold the car I towed and kept the
truck was a twist I didn't see coming.

"Prime Mover" — it's a pun on the locomotive term. I thought it was appropriate for a big, unsexy truck whose only job in life was to move my stuff
cross-country.

Since it was an ex-city utility vehicle, when I bought it, it had a massive utility rack covered with light bars, strobes, spotlights—the works. I sold the
lights, and last time I saw the rack two guys who'd claimed it for free on Craigslist were trying to get it onto the bed of a tiny Mazda pickup. I asked if
they were good, they gave each other a look and me a shrug. I took off, and they were still scratching their heads. I hope they made it work.

It has five brand new tires, and one really ancient terrible one.

The interior is half-torn out because my dash is on the fritz and the blower motor seems to be dead. Overall, it's been dead reliable other than these
little gripes.

With 3500 lbs hanging off the back and at least 500 in the bed, it managed about 12 MPG at 70 mph. Not terrible considering the 350 under hood and the 4.10
rear.